Oedipus the King has many images of blindness, both physical and blindness of the mind. The characters surrounding these images are Oedipus and Tiresias the prophet. When the play begins Oedipus has vision and Tiresias cannot see, but by the end of the play, it is clear who can really see and who is blind.

When Oedipus first encounters Tiresias, the blind prophet proceeds to tell Oedipus after much pressure that Oedipus is the one who has brought the great plague down upon Thebes and that he is the murderer he has sent the residents of the city to find and cast away. Although Tiresias is visually impaired, he can still see the truth of the contingency. However, Oedipus is blind to the truth and immediately begins accusing Tiresias of being involved in a conspiracy with Creon to overthrow him as king. Oedipus casts insults at Tiresias about his blindness saying "You have no strength, blind in your ears, your reason and your eyes." (374-375). Tiresias responds by saying that the insults Oedipus has hurled will before long come back upon him. He also tells Oedipus that what has brought him greatness is the very luck that will ruin him. Tiresias says "Blind who could see, a beggar who was rich, through foreign lands he'll go and point before him with a stick," (460) implying that although Oedipus can see now, the truth will eventually blind him and cause him to loose all he has.

Oedipus remains blind to the truth until he can deny it no longer. After hearing the testimony of the herdsman it is perfectly clear to Oedipus that he has fulfilled the prophecy by killing his father and marrying his mother, in turn bringing the great misfortune about the city of Thebes. Upon discovering this, along with discovering Jocasta's dead body, Oedipus blinds himself with the pins on her dress and shouts that his eyes "would no longer see the evils he had suffered or had done, see in the dark those he should not have seen." (1280-1282). With this he realises that...

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...and Knowledge in Oedipus the King
People equate ‘seeing’ to gaining knowledge. Expressions such as “I see” and “seeing truth” are used to express understanding of something, but is seeing really the same as knowing? In Oedipus the King, Oedipus’s inability to grasp the truth is despite the fact that he is physically able to see contrasts Teiresias’s knowledge of the truth even though he is blind. The irony of the blind man being knowledgeable, and the seer becoming blind to the truth suggests that the idea that knowledge is not related to physical sight. In the beginning of the play, Oedipus is able to see but does not know the truth about who killed Laius. At the conclusion of the play, Oedipus is physically blind but knows the truth, which is how Teiresius was throughout the play.
The irony of Oedipus’s blindness begins on the opening pages of the play, when says, “I never saw the man myself,” (4) while speaking about King Laius. Oedipus’s ignorance is evident because he killed Laius, and Laius was his father, neither of which he knew. He however, states that he wants to correct this, and declares, “I must know it all, must see the truth at last” (34). Here he uses the phrase “see the truth” again as if the physical means of sight will enable him to solve the mystery of who killed his father. This creates dramatic irony as Sophocles...

...smiling at OedipusBlindness
In the play written by Sophocles “Oedipus the King,” is depicted as one who is blind to his own ego, pride stubbornness, anger and lack of knowledge. First written in Greek mythology this play is about a King of Thebes whose ego overshadowed his ability to focus on his the necessary things to stabilize his kingdom; his anger and pride eventually led to his down fall. Having solved the riddle of the Sphinx, (an evil creature) KingOedipus was able to succeed as the new king of Thebes and became the new husband of the queen Jocaster, not knowing that she was his biological mother. Oedipus son of king Laius and Queen Jocaster was doomed from birth, fearing that their son Oedipus will take his father’s life Jocaster give him (Oedipus) to a herdsman to be killed, he was then given to another herds man in the fields In a twist of faith who then returned him to Corinth where he was adopted by King Polybus and his wife Queen Merope, who raised him as their own. It would seem the gods will have their fun day with Oedipus.
Blinded by ego as a kingOedipus seeks only to please his people, his city and himself. Plagued with sufferings throughout his kingdom in which famines, diseases animals becoming extinct, and the women who were...

...Oedipus the King is a old tragedy play by Sophocles. It is about Oedipus, the King of Thebes realizing his destiny of killing his father Laius and marrying his mother Jocasta. In this play, Oedipus plays as a tragic hero by being ''a virtuous man brought from prosperity to adversity." (Aristotle)
As the son of Laius, King of Thebes, Oedipus is given up by his father once he is born as Apollo, the God of Truth, sends an oracle at Delphi to Laius that he would die at the hands of his son. Oedipus is then sent to another city, Cornith, where King Polybus raises him as his own blood.
According to the myth, Oedipus is a very loving son. He leaves Cornith after knowing the oracle from Apollo about killing his father and marrying his mother. He wishes the best for his parents and doesn't want them to suffer. Also, from the beginning of the play, Oedipus shows as a prosperous and good-hearted man. His caring and love can be shown in sending Creon the oracle of Apollo in order to ''learn what I might do or say to save our city'' (83-4) from the plague. In Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, it tells that Oedipus sees himself as the father of the whole state, the misery and suffering are his too. That explains why Oedipus is very well respected by his people...

...Oedipus the KingOedipus is written as a play, there is no narrator, Sophocles explains the story line and then runs the story into playwright. I like this point of view because it can sometimes be more clear to the reader. There are many points of view in this play. That is there are many different individuals addressed this playwright. Thus there are many different points of view.
I think that Oedipus generally speaks in place of a narrator, because he is the main character. I believe he expresses some of the things that Sophocles is trying to say to the audience. An example of this is when he says: "Speak out, speak to us all. I grieve for these, my people, far more that I fear for my own life."� (Sophocles, 395) I think that Sophocles is trying to get people to speak their own mind, come together, and establish a community. He is saying this through Oedipus.
Oedipus goes through many changes. He goes through a state of innocence or ignorance, then through a state of denial and finally a state of acceptance and guilt. Throughout these different stages in his life, he reveals to his audience who he really is.
Oedipus believing he is innocent is part of the form in this play. Oedipus has come to the throne of Thebes by solving the Riddle of the Sphinx. There is a plague upon Thebes which Oedipus desires to heal. Creon returns to the palace after...

...The Willingness to Ignore the Truth
When Oedipus and Jocasta begin to get close to the truth about Laius’s murder, in Oedipus the King, Oedipus fastens onto a detail in the hope of exonerating himself. Jocasta says that she was told that Laius was killed by “strangers,” whereas Oedipus knows that he acted alone when he killed a man in similar circumstances. This is an extraordinary moment because it calls into question the entire truth-seeking process Oedipus believes himself to be undertaking. Both Oedipus and Jocasta act as though the servant’s story, once spoken, is irrefutable history. Neither can face the possibility of what it would mean if the servant were wrong. This is perhaps why Jocasta feels she can tell Oedipus of the prophecy that her son would kill his father, and Oedipus can tell her about the similar prophecy given him by an oracle (867–875), and neither feels compelled to remark on the coincidence; or why Oedipus can hear the story of Jocasta binding her child’s ankles (780–781) and not think of his own swollen feet. While the information in these speeches is largely intended to make the audience painfully aware of the tragic irony, it also emphasizes just how desperately Oedipus and Jocasta do not want to speak the obvious truth: they look at the circumstances and details of everyday life and...

...Unity of Action: Each of the incidents in this play is part of a tightly constructed cause-and-effect chain. The plague in Thebes prompts Oedipus to send Creon to consult the oracle of Delphi; the oracle¡¦s reply that the murderer of Laius must be banished from Thebes prompts Oedipus pronounce a solemn curse on the murderer and to send for Teiresias. Teriesias states that Oedipus is the murderer, but since the king knows himself to be innocent (or thinks he knows), he accuses Creon of plotting with Teiresias against him. The quarrel of Oedipus and Creon brings Jocasta from the house; seeking to calm down her husband and prove that oracles cannot be trusted, she tells again of how Laius died. When she mentions that he was killed ¡§at a place where three roads meet,¡¨ Oedipus suddenly begins to suspect that he may indeed have killed the king without knowing who he was. To settle the matter, they send for the Herdsman who is the only survivor of that attack. Meanwhile a messenger arrives from Corinth to inform Oedipus that his supposed father, King Polybus of Corinth, has died. When Oedipus rejoices that he did not kill his father as the oracle had prophesied but is still worried that he may marry his mother, the Messenger, seeking to relieve him of this fear, innocently tells him that Polybus and Merope were not his real parents.
The...

...Oedipus' Hamartia
Aristotle once said that a hero's downfall must be a result of some tragic flaw within the character. This flaw was known as hamartia in the Greek world of Aristotle. Since Aristotle greatly admired Oedipus the King, many people believe that Oedipus must have had a prominent and complex hamartia. Discovering Oedipus' hamartia within the play is not an easy task. In fact, it is impossible to point out Oedipus' hamartia since I do not believe that he has one. Everything that he says or does throughout the play is justifiable in one way or another. There is always some logical explanation behind his thoughts and actions and, thus, Oedipus does not have a tragic flaw in his character.
There are a number of different points that one can analyze and claim to be Oedipus'hamartia. For instance, some people may examine Oedipus' bad temper and label this as the flaw that leads to his downfall. Oedipus becomes enraged at Teiresias' claim that he is the one who murdered Laius and he begins to believe that this is an attempt by Creon to overthrow him. Despite Oedipus' anger in this situation, his reaction can be justified. First of all, Teiresias' allegation that Oedipus is the killer is absurd to him since he would
never murder a king. Also, it seems logical that Creon would be...

...OEDIPUS THE KING
An Abridged and Adapted Version of Sophocles' Play*
by Nick Bartel, 1999
(Intended for use as Readers' Theater in the Junior - Senior High School
Classroom)
Characters:
Oedipus, King of Thebes
Jocasta, His Wife
Creon, His Brother-in-Law
Teiresias, an Old Blind Prophet A Priest
First Messenger
Second Messenger
A Herdsman
A Chorus of Old Men of Thebes (three or more chorus
members)[Non-Speaking Parts]
Servants of Oedipus (2)
Children and young priests who pray; one leads Teiresias
Antigone and Ismene, daughters of Oedipus
Scene: In front of Oedipus' palace in Thebes. To the right is an altar where a
priest stands with a crowd of children in sorrowful prayer. Oedipus emerges from
the palace door. The chorus is on the left.
Oedipus:
Children, why do you sit here with such sorrow, crying out to the gods? The
town is filled with the sounds of hymns and smells of incense! I, whom all
men call the Great, came out to learn of this myself.
[He turns to the priest.] You're old and they are young. Come, speak for
them. What do you fear or want that you sit here crying out? I'm willing to
give all that you may need.
Priest:
Lord Oedipus, these innocent children and I, the priest of Zeus, we come to
pray at your altars. King, you have seen our city tossing like a...